


Room 28

by Probably_exhausted



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Humour, Original Character(s), School, Swan Mills Family, Teacher AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-05-17 22:11:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5887243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Probably_exhausted/pseuds/Probably_exhausted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina is the notoriously "evil" Chemistry teacher, daughter of the principal. Emma is the new laid back Geography teacher. When they're both put in charge of Henry's form, they instantly get off on the wrong foot. Henry watches as their relationship evolves over the year, finding himself to be far from an outsider.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Day of Term

 

** Chapter One **

It was in Henry Mills’ sixteenth year of life that everything changed. It suddenly was filled with the clarity and sense that it was so desperately lacking, but, at the same time, made no sense at all. But, it certainly made the days following his sixteenth birthday the best of his life. 

Henry found that being born into the foster system was hard, there was no avoiding it. After the years, he managed to cope with it, counting down the days until he would be old enough to finally get out of it. He had been told that his mother had given him up for adoption, but after a woman from Maine had dropped out at the last minute, there was no one else. 

He’d been all over the country by the time he was ten. Boston, Denver, Salt Lake City, Tallahassee, Mobile and finally, to a small town in Maine. Storybrooke. It was definitely the smallest place he’d ever lived and he quickly found it to be his favourite. He celebrated his fifteenth birthday and then within a week, he was enrolled into the high school and was quickly befriended by Grace Hatter; a loud, friendly, kind and bubbly personality. 

Miraculously, he had been able to stay in one high school for the whole of sophomore year and start at the same one the next year. It was the longest he had stayed in one home his entire life. It was his first day of junior year, something he had been looking forward to for a few weeks. The house he was living in wasn’t too bad, there was always food for him and an odd conversation here and there. There was just no relationship between anybody in the house. The girl about a year older than Henry was never home and the twins who were younger than him were always locked up in their room and had hated him ever since he’d arrived for some reason. His foster father was a quiet man who kept to himself, only asking Henry if he was feeling well or wanted anything in particular. 

“Hey, Henry.” A tall girl with golden hair ran over to him, smiling. Henry smiled back, feeling better for being around his friends again for the first time in a couple of months. It was almost like a pleasant waking up from a long sleep. The sleep was fine, but he was enjoying actually _feeling_ again. 

“Hey Grace!” Henry grinned, pulling on his backpack strap. She started chatting about her holiday and everything that had happened to her over the summer. Henry was more than happy to listen.

“Oh, did you hear? Guess who our form teacher is.” Grace deadpanned, opening up her locker. Henry shrugged, dropping his bag onto the floor as he tried to remember the code.

“No, who?” he asked, putting his books into his locker.

“The Evil Queen." She groaned, shutting her locker and leaning against it. Henry frowned, shutting his own locker.

“Miss Mills? She’s really nice though?” Henry asked, confused. Grace laughed.

“That’s because you have a crush on her.” Grace teased. Henry’s face contorted with disgust.

“Ew, no! Grace!” He groaned, making Grace laugh more. 

“Fine. But you’re one of her favourites.” Grace reasoned, nudging his shoulder. 

“I’m not.” Henry dismissed, looking at the ground. He was never anybody’s favourite. They always found him too quiet or thought he was uninterested. “Who’s the other form teacher?” 

“Not sure, I think they’re new.” Grace shrugged, opening the door to Room 28 - their form room.Henry and Grace sat down in their usual seats while the classroom filled up with the rest of the students. A hush quickly fell across the class when the door opened and Miss Mills walked in. She had a fitted grey dress on, high heels and her trademark red lipstick. Henry noticed that her hair was also a bit shorter than last year.

“Good morning.” She greeted noncommittally, walking over to the desk. A murmur of ‘good mornings’ came from the class, and Henry could have sworn he heard one sleep-deprived teenager from the back of the classroom say ‘hey’.

Miss Mills made no move to engage in a conversation with the class so they quickly busied themselves with chatting and getting ready for their first lessons. Henry watched her out of the corner of his eye as she sat at the desk, resting her chin on her hand and tapping her cheek with her fingers impatiently. She glanced at the clock every so often, frowning even more every time she looked. The bell rang and Miss Mills exhaled, leaning back into the chair. 

“Okay, I am going to have to take the register witho-“She was interrupted by the door bursting open. Everyone’s head quickly turned to the door as a blonde woman all but fell in. She was breathing heavily as if she had run from the other side of the school, carrying an armful of books and…a half-eaten bear claw? The blonde woman looked around the class nervously, straightening up.

“Hi.” She smiled lamely, earning a snort from Grace next to him and a few laughs from around the classroom. Henry looked to Miss Mills who seemed incredibly unimpressed. The brunette woman stood up and rested a hand against her hip.

“Miss Swan, how nice of you to join us.” Miss Mills declared bitterly, eyeing the woman up and down. A blush creeped up onto the blonde woman’s face as she saw the older woman before looking around the classroom again. 

“Well, y’know, making an entrance and all that.” Miss Swan laughed awkwardly. Miss Mills’ reaction alone would have made Henry smile. She elegantly strode over to the other woman, pulling the books and pastry out of her hand. Miss Swan seemed entranced by the movement, following the woman with her eyes.

“Hand these out.” Miss Mills demanded, dropping a load of homework journals into Miss Swan’s hands. Henry started to cringe as Miss Swan continued to stare right at her. Miss Mills arched her eyebrow. “Oh, and you have icing on your chin.” 

“Fuck.” Miss Swan blurted out, turning away from the class to wipe it off with her blazer sleeve. The class erupted with laughter. 

“Miss Swan!” Miss Mills reprimanded, her eyes wide. Miss Swan muttered an apology amidst laughing herself. She quickly handed out the homework journals while making light conversation with the students. Miss Mills sat on the desk, one leg crossed over the other while watching Miss Swan move around the room. Grace lifted up her textbook to shield her face so that Miss Mills couldn’t see her before looking at Henry and waggling her eyebrows suggestively. Henry covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing too loudly. 

“What are you two laughing at?” Miss Swan smiled, handing them each a journal. Henry instantly liked the woman – she seemed kind. 

“I think you annoyed Miss Mills.” Grace replied. Henry was taken aback by Grace’s confidence to actually say it. Miss Swan looked up to the brunette who was glaring at her. 

“I think you’re right. Is she a chocolate person or a flowers person?” Miss Swan asked, turning around so that her back was to Miss Mills. If Henry was confused, his face must have showed it. “I’m trying to save my ass here!” 

“She’s a chemistry teacher; give her Universal Indicator or something.” Grace shrugged. Miss Swan laughed before turning around to continue handing out the journals. Grace lifted up the text book to speak to Henry now that they were in clear view of Miss Mills again.

“I’m telling you, they’ve totally got the hots for each other.” Grace whispered. 

“You think everyone has the hots for each other.” Henry whispered back. Grace rolled her eyes. 

“Trust me, they do.” Grace emphasised. Henry shrugged, turning back to rifle through his bag for a pen. 

“Henry, look!” She whacked him on the shoulder, gesturing to the front desk where Miss Swan was leaning against the side next to where Miss Mills was sitting. They were definitely invading each other’s personal space. Henry could tell that they were talking, but he could only just hear them. 

_“Honestly, I did try to be early this morning, I swear!”_

_“Not only were you late, you also arrived disruptively, covered in some form of sugar and dressed completely inappropriately. If you were a student, you would have been sent home by now.”_

_“Geez, I already said I was sorry. And what’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”_

_“That’s what you’re focusing on.”_

_“Answer the question.”_

_“You’re wearing jeans, Miss Swan.”_

_“They’re dark jeans, no one can tell the difference. And what’s so appropriate about five inch heels? It’s a school.”_

_“I’ll have you know that if you so much as put a toe out of line, I can have you fired. You have no idea what I am capable of.”_

_“No, I think, Miss Mills, that you have no idea what_ I _am capable of.”_

By this point, a silence had fallen across the classroom as the two women bickered. They were barely inches from each other’s faces. Grace had a grip on Henry’s arm, determined to prove her theory right. The women noticed the silence, quickly distancing themselves. Miss Swan reached over and grabbed the papers out of Miss Mills’ hands, earning a glare and an attempt at a slap from the older woman. 

“Okay, here are your timetables!” Miss Swan jumped up. She started to read out the first couple of names, handing them out to which student responded. 

“Grace Hatter?” Miss Swan read out. Grace put her hand up and the teacher smiled at her. 

“Henry…Mills?” The blonde woman read off, her eyebrows furrowing. She looked over to Miss Mills. The Chemistry teacher hadn’t even noticed that Henry was in her class. Henry sank down into his chair as a few of the students at the back of the classroom started to laugh. He hated being the centre of attention more than anything. 

“It’s just a coincidence, Miss Swan.” He heard Miss Mills correct. He looked up meekly to her and she offered him a small, genuine smile. Her eyes crinkled at the sides when she did so. He noticed Miss Swan watching the exchange between him and the chemistry teacher with curiosity. 

“Sorry, kid.” She apologised, patting him on the back. Henry looked over his timetable to distract himself from the embarrassment of being singled out. He noticed that yet again, Miss Mills was teaching him Chemistry this year. He didn’t understand why the other students didn’t like her. She was sweet and kind. She would always chat to him if he arrived early or help him out with the homework if he didn’t understand. Grace had told him that she didn’t do that with anyone else, but Henry didn’t understand what made him so special. 

The bell rang and all the students moved to get up, a cacophony of noise erupting as chairs scraped against the floor and chatter filled the hallway. After a few moments, Henry and Grace made their way out with the rest of the crowd. 

“What have you got?” Grace asked, looking over her timetable and then up to Henry as they walked side by side. 

“Free period.” Henry replied, looking over his own timetable.

“Oh, same!” Grace smiled. Henry smiled, gesturing to the courtyard. It wasn’t like they had any work to catch up on - even Grace wasn’t late on any homework yet - and it was still warm and sunny, so the sitting in the grassy courtyard seemed like a nice way to catch a breath on the hectic first day. 

“I have some-“A flash of blonde hair pushed them both apart, knocking Henry against a locker. His heart rate picked up as he prepared to defend himself against an attack. 

“Shit, hey, kid. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Henry took a second to calm down before realising that it was Miss Swan. Henry swallowed. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” Henry replied, forcing a smile. 

“I’m really sorry. I’m late for a lesson. Again. See you after lunch!” She waved, running off. Grace eyed him curiously. 

“She really doesn’t have it together, does she?” Grace smiled, watching Miss Swan run into another student on the other side of the courtyard. Henry laughed in agreement.


	2. Homework

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm so sorry about how long it's taken me to update this, I appreciate all your comments and kudos. I've been thinking about this idea for nearly a year now and I wanted to take the time to plan it properly and do it justice. Also, I've just finished the exams that I've been revising for since February, so updates should be more regular. Enjoy!

**Chapter Two**

Sadly for Grace, her theory was becoming less and less realistic when it became apparent that the two teachers hated one another. It was mostly just sniping remarks and glares, but it made the students rush to form time each day in the hope that a fight would finally break out between the two women. The closest they’d ever got was on a rainy Tuesday morning.

Henry was exhausted. The kind of exhausted where his head hurt, his legs ached and he felt nauseous. It probably wasn’t natural to be that exhausted, but Miss Mills’ Chemistry homework had been a killer. He stupidly spent too long on the phone to Grace, not realising that Miss Mills’ volume of work was similar to that of a third year med student. By the time he had finished, it was close to two am. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who had had this problem.

Mateo, another kid in Henry’s class, had managed to walk into the door twice on his way in, knocking his head against the wood and not even realising either time. Lara was fast asleep in the back of the room and Claire had asked someone what day it was three times in the last few minutes. If Henry wasn’t so exhausted, he would have laughed at how it seemed he was suddenly surrounded by geriatrics.

For once in her life, Miss Swan was in the classroom first.

“Morning!” she sang, dumping her belongings all over the teachers’ desk. There were only grunts to reply. “Wow, you all look exhausted.”

“Miss Mills’ homework took me five hours.” Lara groaned from the back, not even lifting her head from the desk. Miss Swan’s eyebrows furrowed as she folded her arms.

“Did it take all of you this long?” She asked, walking over to Claire’s table. She leaned over and opened up her folder, her eyebrows raising as Claire’s usually beautifully crafted handwriting begun to slip and slide off the page towards the end. The students all nodded in agreement. Miss Swan hummed, shutting the folder. She made her way back to the teachers’ desk, firing up the old computer to take the roll call.

The class sat in silence for a few minutes, waiting for either the archaic computer to log in or Miss Mills to turn up. The latter arrived first.

Miss Mills noticed the quiet class the moment she stepped in, quietly shutting the door behind her and sending Miss Swan a confused quirk of her eyebrow. Miss Swan rolled her eyes, finally typing in her log in details.

“What’s going on?” Henry heard Miss Mills try to whisper, but in the state of the classroom, she needn’t have bothered.

“They’re exhausted.” Miss Swan replied curtly, looking over the top of the computer to check which students were there and tick them off on the roll call.

“Why?” Miss Mills asked, taking the lanyard with the keys to various chemistry stores and her swipe card to the building off from around her neck and placing it on the desk. Miss Swan turned her head to glare at the chemistry teacher.

“Are you serious?” Miss Swan deadpanned, raising one eyebrow. Miss Mills glared back.

“Perfectly serious. Care to elaborate, Miss Swan?” She inquired.

“They’re exhausted because they stayed up all night to do the homework that you set. You could’ve at least given them a few days to do it.” The geography teacher accused. Henry didn’t even need to see her face to know that Miss Mills had scoffed.

“Well, if they’d actually listened in the lesson instead of chatting or daydreaming, maybe it wouldn’t have taken them so long. It’s not your place to reprimand me, Miss Swan.” Miss Mills spat back. For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Miss Swan rolled her eyes again. Henry saw Grace’s mouth fall open next to him, clearly insulted and frustrated by the thoughtless comment. Grace had definitely been paying attention to the lesson. After she only narrowly passed Chemistry the year before, she realised that if she was going to achieve her dream of getting into an Ivy League she would need a much better mark. Henry had received many frustrated texts from her around one in the morning and after finally calling her, she sounded on the verge of tears from not understanding anything in the homework.

“Maybe you should learn to be less of a bitch.” Miss Swan replied, albeit immaturely. Miss Mills sucked in a deep breath before looking up to the students. Henry, along with the rest of the room, were looking at her with unamused, tired expressions. Only when her dark brown eyes moved over to Henry did they begin to fill with guilt and even a small glimmer of regret.

“I’m going to put on some Parks and Rec for you guys, sound good?” Miss Swan asked from the front, breaking the awkward tension that had formed. A murmur of agreement ran around and the room was quickly rejuvenated with some energy once Amy Poehler’s eccentric character came onto the board at the front. Miss Mills’ brash and unfair comment was quickly forgotten as laughs burst out over the room during the episode.

As Henry watched the larger screen at the front of the room, he noticed Miss Mills making a few attempts to move, but seemingly decide against it at the last second. She was sitting on a spare chair next to Miss Swan, her legs neatly crossed over and hands clasped over her knee. Every so often she would brush her short brown hair out of her eyes. The same could not be said for Miss Swan. She was slumped down in her chair, her legs up on the table and crossed over at the ankles and drinking her coffee at a rate Henry was sure to scald. It was amusing to look at the both of them; such polar opposites yet both given the same task of keeping a group of 30 teenagers happy and well.

When he was at Storybrooke High the year before, Mr and Mrs Nolan had been put in charge of looking after them. They were Storybrooke’s own fairytale, apparently. They both met when they attended the school and became high school sweethearts. Afterwards, they both went to Boston University, got married, got their degrees - Politics and English respectively - and then moved back to Storybrooke, eager to teach the next generation. It was stories like that which made Henry upset. He’d never be able to say that he was best friends with someone from cradle to grave, he could never say that he was going “home” from college, he would never have a story like Mr and Mrs Nolan’s. Despite that, they were lovely form tutors. Mr Nolan would introduce sarcasm and humour into the classroom while Mrs Nolan would deliver the best pastoral care the school had ever seen. She was determined to iron out every wrinkle in everybody’s life and drive herself to exhaustion until she could do so. He had assumed that he would miss them terribly when he moved into Junior year and no teachers would ever live up to them, but he found that he was enjoying being treated like he was a bit older and with less suffocating care. Mrs Nolan had brought in a small bird one day, for god’s sake. It had sat on the tip of her finger for the entire morning, only finally moving when she realised it was about to take a crap in her hand and had screamed and shook her hand out the window, reducing the class to tears of laughter.

The bell rang, interrupting Henry’s thoughts. The class begrudgingly got up, tiredly packing up their things and leaving the classroom.

Henry found it always took him the longest to learn his schedule. It would be nearly Christmas and he’d still be wondering whether he had Art next or AP Biology. Luckily, Grace had most of her classes with him so he could consult her.

“English, dumbass.” Grace laughed, knowing exactly that Henry was about to ask her. He smiled back, picking up all his Chemistry things to put back into his locker. They were about to leave the classroom when Miss Mills stepped forward in their direction, trying to catch their attention.

“Oh, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for the homework. I didn’t realise it would be so much work.” She apologised sincerely, looking between Henry and Grace. They were both slightly taken aback by the apology, not really sure how to respond.

“It’s okay, I didn’t mind it so much.” Henry lied, earning a smile from Miss Mills.

“What about you Grace?” She asked, directing her dark eyes to golden-haired girl. Henry watched as Grace’s cheeks turned a deep shade of red, her eyes widening.

“Um…it was hard. I couldn’t do that last couple of questions.” She stuttered. Henry’s eyebrows drew together in confusion over his usually confident and self assured friend. Miss Mills tried to hide a small smile, nodding.

“Okay. Well if you don’t understand something, you could always come and find me.” She offered, knowing exactly what she was doing. Grace looked like she’d rather be mauled to death by three bears in the middle of the apocalypse than do that.

“Oh, it’s okay. Henry explained most of it to me.” Grace dismissed, trying to divert some of the attention off of her and onto the brown haired boy.

“Did he?” Miss Mills smiled genuinely, looking back at Henry.

“Yeah, he’s pretty smart.” Grace offered, looking at him herself. Now it was Henry’s turn to wish for the apocalyptic bear mauling session - he rarely ever received praise and had absolutely no idea what to do with it when it did eventually come his way.

“I am aware.” Miss Mills offered a small smile before turning back to pack up her belongings. Miss Swan was still lounging at the desk, watching the three of them. Henry and Grace shared a look before quickly leaving the classroom.

“That was weird.” Grace laughed, shrugging off the awkwardness. Henry walked in front of her, effectively stopping her and folding his arms. “What?”

“You like Miss Mills!” He accused, raising his eyebrows. Grace blushed again while scoffing and rolling her eyes.

“Do not.” She replied, trying to walk around the boy. Henry only obstructed her path further.

“Do too.”

Grace sighed, folding her arms and finally looked up to him. “Okay, maybe just slightly.”

“I knew it!” Henry laughed, stepping out of her way. Grace huffed and shoved Henry’s arm as he continued to laugh, annoyed at his teasing.

* * *

 

If Henry still wasn’t quite angry at her for setting such a ridiculous amount of homework, on top of dismissing their opinions due to “not paying attention”, he would have felt bad for Miss Mills. Despite the teacher’s command for respect and evil-esque impression, she was being properly berated by the students. Henry watched as student after student complained at the surprisingly small woman, all coming together as one large wall of sound. Her eyes flashed between anger at being disrespected and something Henry could only describe as fear. It was the fear that brought out the empathy in him, yet he was not sure why it was there.

The brunette shook her head as if warding off a bad memory or thought before stamping her foot into the floor, effectively silencing the class.

“SILENCE.” She shouted, glaring at them collectively. A small flicker of relief ran over her expression. “How dare you all speak to me like this! I understand, and I do apologise, that the homework took so long, but did any of you think to either email me about the issue last night? I would have understood if you had all done the full hour’s worth of homework and then explained to me today why you hadn’t finished. I may be stern, but I’m not completely unreasonable.”

The students thought about it for a second, still unconvinced that she would have been as reasonable as she claimed. This was the woman who threatened to throw hydrochloric acid on a boy last year who “accidentally” touched her ass. Well, actually, that jerk deserved it.

“Sorry, Miss Mills.” A girl at the front quietly squeaked, triggering a chorus of apologies from the class. The brunette teacher’s shoulders fell as she relaxed, glad to have resolved the issue.

“It’s quite alright. Would you like me to go through the homework?” Miss Mills asked. The students nodded, the teacher finally progressing with her lesson.

It went by quickly, Henry jotting down where he had gone wrong and how to do the problem correctly. When the bell finally went for the end of the day, Henry scooped up the new problems set and made his way to the locker room.

Grace bid Henry goodbye as he made his way to the library. He usually worked there from the end of school until it closed around 7, finding it easier to work with people around him than at the house, alone in his room.

He’d started onto his new set of chemistry problems when he heard a throat clear behind him. He looked up and turned his head, seeing Miss Mills. She offered him a small smile before gesturing to the seat next to him.

“Oh, sure.” He offered a closed-lip smile back, moving his folders over to the right to make room for her. He looked around the library and realised that it was packed, which was probably why she was sitting next to the boy.

“Are those the questions I set?” She asked, tapping Henry’s scribbled-on piece of paper with the back of her biro. He nodded.

“Yeah. They’re kind of hard, but I guess they’re okay.” Henry shrugged. Miss Mills glanced over them, an appraising look on her face.

“Well, you’re doing very well. Apart from a few mistakes in detail, you’re correct.” She encouraged, smiling at him again.

“Oh okay, thanks!” He smiled back, noticing the mistakes she was talking about and quickly changed them. They both returned to their work quietly, Henry powering through his chemistry homework before pulling out his government and politics homework. Mr Nolan had set an essay, something which Henry didn’t really want to admit he was good at. He found that the argument just flowed easily and never had any real problems learning how to string it all together into a neat conclusion. He started on the 40 mark question, noting down the points for each side of the argument.

Henry looked up, his eyebrows raising when he saw the time. It was six o’clock. He’d just about finished his essay on the constitutional reforms of the UK since 1997, looking over it for finishing touches. He shyly moved his look sideways to the brunette teacher sitting beside him. She was still there, engrossed in thought as she daintily chewed on the back of her red biro, glaring at the question set she was marking. Henry immediately recognised it as the “how stupid is this student” look.

“What did they write?” Henry asked, laughter tinting the question. Miss Mills jumped, startled from her thoughts. After clearing her throat, she let out a small laugh and showed Henry the answer that a freshman had written to a simple question.

“I don’t mind students getting things wrong, but it’s just when they don’t even try…” Miss Mills trailed off, rereading the answer again. The question had asked what would be formed if a metal oxide and an acid was mixed together, to which the student replied with ‘metallic oxid’.

“That’s kinda funny.” Henry laughed, folding his arms on the table. Her frustrated face morphed upon Henry’s statement, realising the funny side to it. Her lips slowly upturned into a smile, shaking her head as she put the paper underneath all the other students’ to mark later. Her eyes caught the time on the clock, her mouth falling open slightly.

“Is that really the time?” she asked, checking her wristwatch. Henry hmm’d back an affirmation, tapping his pen against his lip as he thought.

“How long were you planning on staying here?” Miss Mills asked, picking up all the papers and sliding them into her bag to grade when she got home. Henry felt a strange wave of loneliness wash over him as he watched the teacher pack up, not really wanting to be alone again. He’d enjoyed having her work next to him, even if they hadn’t spoken much.

“Um, until it closes, I guess?” Henry replied. The brunette’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, a question sitting on the tip of her tongue.

“What about your parents? Do they not want you back for dinner?” Miss Mills asked. Henry shook his head, debating whether or not to tell her the truth. She was his form tutor, right? So she was going to probably find out anyway when he turned up to parent-teacher conference with no parent.

“I don’t actually have any parents. So, no.” Henry replied quietly, averting his eyes from Miss Mills’ soft brown ones. They became even softer at his admission, her hand touching the boy’s arm comfortingly before she even knew what she was doing. It always made Henry frustrated when this happened. _That look_. When people started to see him differently. But surprisingly, Miss Mills looked more understanding than pitying, which confused the brown-haired boy further. She removed her hand, placing it back into her lap.

“Where are you living?” She asked, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.

“At a foster home. At least, until I turn 18 next year.” Henry replied.

“Do you…do you not like it there?” Usually, Henry would be annoyed at the probing into his personal life that he only ever really revealed to Grace. However, Miss Mills didn’t seem to be pitying him as other people did, but more curious.

“Um, no, not really. The guy in charge is alright, but I don’t know anyone in the house. It can get pretty…lonely.” Okay, that was definitely way more than Henry had expected to reveal to the teacher. There was just something so warm about her that he wanted to open up and tell her everything dark in his life.

“I know that feeling.” She sighed, her comment on the out breath. Henry quirked his eyebrows, wondering what the teacher had to feel lonely about. Even though Henry had never thought of her in that way, he couldn’t deny that she was pretty, so she probably had a line of men banging down her door. He imagined she had a big house with a nice husband and probably a few dogs. Henry knew his next question was probably out of bounds, but he’d already revealed so much to the older woman that it felt less so.

“What do you mean?” He asked, holding his breath for her reaction. He knew Miss Mills to be someone with a short temper, one which had been shown to him a few times over the year she had already taught him. He just hoped that she wouldn’t react badly to his inquisitiveness. Miss Mills’s eyes widened as she looked at the boy, her mouth slightly open as she thought over the question and how best to answer it.

“Well, I live alone. I don’t get on very well with my family either, it’s somewhat of a…hostile relationship.” Miss Mills explained quietly, seemingly just as surprised as Henry that she had revealed as much as she had. There was definitely something inappropriate about what she had revealed to the boy, but she had grown closer to Henry over the previous year and the few weeks that she had been his form tutor. She knew he wasn’t the type to go spilling every scrap of information he told her to the rest of his classmates.

“That doesn’t sound very nice.” Henry replied, wrinkling his nose in a similar way that, Miss Mills realised, she did. She let out a small laugh, tucking her short brown hair behind her ear.

“It’s not.” She smiled weakly, her eyes glistening slightly. Clearing her throat, she smoothed her dress over her knees and stood up. She looked to the window, frowning at the dark scenery outside. Even though it was only late September, Maine always seemed to progress into winter before most other places. The idea of Henry walking home alone in the dark elicited a strange protective fear in the brunette, something which she wasn’t accustomed to.

“Could I at least give you a lift home?” Miss Mills asked, buttoning up her expensive black trench coat. Henry looked up from his work to Miss Mills. She seemed sincere on the offer, her dark brown eyes watching him as he thought about his response. He really didn’t want to bother the teacher and felt like she was probably only offering the lift out of courtesy.

“I don’t live anywhere near here, you don’t have to.” Henry replied, giving her a closed lip smile.

“I really don’t mind, Henry. It’s dark, cold and raining outside; I don’t want you to get ill.” Miss Mills insisted, surprising herself and Henry with her admission. Henry felt warmth spread through his chest; no one apart from Grace had ever cared whether or not he got ill, or really about anything that he did.

“Are you sure?” He replied quietly, double checking that he wasn’t being a nuisance. Miss Mills let out a small laugh.

“I’m sure, Henry. Pack up your things.” She replied, smiling fondly at him. Henry smiled back at her, a genuine one this time. He quickly packed up his textbooks and folders, pulling on his coat and red and blue striped scarf.

“Okay, I’m ready.” They told each other about their day while heading down to the car park, Miss Mills grimacing at the cold drizzle falling to the ground.

“My car’s over there.” She pointed to a sleek, black Mercedes which didn’t surprise Henry at all that she owned. It matched her personality perfectly. She pulled her coat around herself more tightly before quickly making her way to the car at a speed halfway between a jog and a speed-walk. They got to her car and she unlocked the door, motioning for Henry to get in. He was careful not to bash the door of the Mercedes on the glaringly yellow VW beetle parked next to Miss Mills’ car.

“And that heap of scrap metal is Miss Swan’s.” Miss Mills explained, pointing to the aforementioned car. Henry laughed as she turned on the car’s heating, trying to offset her shivering.

Once the car was warmed up, Miss Mills buckled her seat belt in and drove them out of the car park. Henry grimaced when he gave her the address to his house, prepared for her to realise her mistake in offering him a lift when she realised that it was a half an hour drive away. However, to his surprise, she didn’t.

Henry thought that he would feel more awkward in a situation like this, never being good at one-on-one with many people. This time, he and Miss Mills fell into an easy conversation. Around 15 minutes into the journey, Miss Mills gasped as she looked at her surroundings.

“I grew up here.” She quickly explained to Henry. Henry raised his eyebrows, wanting to hear more about her childhood after she had asked him so much about his earlier on in the journey.

“I think it was around the corner. I lived with Mother and Father. Oh, and that’s the park I would go to with Father. There used to be this play-castle there, it’s hard to describe, but I would insist that I was the Queen of it. My favourite character was the Evil Queen, so I think I was trying to be like her. Regina; I guess it’s quite fitting.” Miss Mills explained, glancing wistfully at the park while they drove past it. Henry wondered what had happened to the relationships that she spoke about so fondly to her description of them in the library. Nonetheless, he smiled at the anecdote which was somewhat made funnier by the fact that she was known as the Evil Queen amongst the students. Henry began to put two and two together.

“You started the nickname!” Henry gasped, his accusation interlaced with laughter. Miss Mills plastered a faux-innocent expression on her face.

“Henry, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.” Miss Mills replied, fighting a smile.

“Yes, you do. I can see it. You started the Evil Queen nickname.” Henry laughed, taking none of the older woman’s deflections. Miss Mills couldn’t fight the smile anymore, turning her face towards the window to hide it from Henry.

“Alright, I may have started the nickname. You would all have thought for a nickname for me regardless, I might as well have ensured that it was one I approved of.” She defended, making Henry laugh harder.

“That is literally the _saddest_ thing, and you teach Chemistry.” Henry teased, earning a shocked glare from the brunette.

“It was not _sad_! And there’s nothing sad about Chemistry, young man. I can very easily fail you if you continue to disrespect your teacher.” Miss Mills reprimanded, unable to keep her amusement out of her voice which removed any seriousness to her threat.

“Alright, Miss Mills. I sincerely apologise.” Henry apologised in an over-the-top manner. Miss Mills looked at the ridiculous boy for a second before looking back to the road.

“For god’s sake, Henry.” She laughed, shaking her head. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face for a while, realising that it was the first time in a while she had truly joked around with someone without any underlying malicious intent. In fact, it was the first time in a long time that a conversation had actually made her feel better instead of worse. It hadn’t hit her how truly lonely she was until that moment, somewhat sobering her good mood. Henry was oblivious to this, watching the dark scenery slip past as they got closer and closer to the house. His felt his own happiness ebb away the closer that the car got, preparing for the isolation and silence that the house brought.

All too soon, the black Mercedes pulled up outside a moderately sized house.

“Good night, Henry.” Miss Mills smiled to him, her smile not quite reaching her eyes as it had done before. Henry nodded, picking up his bag from the car floor.

“See you tomorrow, Miss Mills. Thanks for the lift.” He replied, giving her a small smile in return.

“It was nothing. See you tomorrow.” Henry stepped out of the warm car into the cold night, shutting the door behind him. He felt her watching him as he walked up the stairs to the dark house, pulling out his key and opening the front door. He turned around and gave her a small wave goodbye. She waved back, sure that he was inside his house, and drove off down the road. Henry shut the front door and sighed loudly, a heavy sinking feeling of loneliness settling in his stomach.


End file.
